500
Stage M anager
Goes World Class
Black Panthers 1968
Exhibit captures
pride, strength
Former PCC student hired by
Chicago's Joffrey Ballet
See story, Metro section B
w
See story, Metro section B
|Jo rtl¿tn ó
‘City of Roses’
Volume XXXV. Number 2
WMD Search Over
T he W hite H ouse ac k n o w l
edged that its hunt for Iraqi weap
ons o f mass destruction - a two-
year search costing millions o f
dollars - has closed down w ith
out finding the stockpiles that
President Bush cited as a justifi
cation for overthrowing Saddam
Hussein.
US Won’t Withdraw
Until Iraq is Secure
S ecretary o f S tate nom inee
Condoleezza Rice told senators
that a U.S. exit strategy from Iraq
depends on that country’s abil
ity to defend itself against terror
ists after this m onth's elections.
Abu Ghraib Abuser
Gets 10 Years
Spc. Charles
G ranerJr.,the
Army reserv
ist shown in
smiling pho
tos beside na
ked Iraqi pris
o n e rs, w as
sentenced to
10 y ears in
m ilita ry
priso n afte r
telling jurors
he was ordered to abuse detain
ees and “didn’t enjoy what I did
there.” See story, page A2.
Abbas Meets
with Militants
Palestinian leader M ahm oud
Abbas traveled to Gaza for m eet
ings with militants, saying he is
hopeful he can persuade them to
halt attacks on Israel, but a bom b
ing attack shortly after his arrival
cast a shadow over the pros
pects.
Established In 1970
w w w .p o rtla n d o b se rve r.co m
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Wednesday1 • January 19. 2005
For
Every
Girl
o f co lo r betw een the ages o f 18 and
29.
C ro ss-cu ltu ral and sam e-culture
m entoring provides learning and
cultural exchanges for both the girls
and the volunteers. H ow ever, Girl
S couts som etim es has ch allen g es
ju st reaching future G irls S couts
and th eir p aren ts because o f la n
guage barriers.
The o rg an izatio n is lo o k in g for
v olunteers w ith a variety o f ex p e ri
ences and skill sets to help m entor
a div erse g ro u p o f girls.
“ We need v olunteers to help us
Girl Scouts
comes of age
The troops I'm
trying to form need
volunteers o f all
different ages, with all
different skills, who
are ethnically diverse
and o f different
socioeconomic status.
by J aym ee R . C uti
T he P ortland O bserver
A m ulticultural group o f d ed i
c a te d w om en are h elp in g G irl
S couts serve every girl, ev e ry
where.
L a S h an d a H urst, m ark etin g
sp ecialist for G irl Scouts, is using
her ex p erien ce as a H ousing and
U rban D evelopm ent specialist to
help stabilize and secure v olun
teers fo r the troops serving low-
incom e and d isadvantaged n eigh
b o rh o o d s.
In line w ith the philosophy o f
bringing G irl Scouts to every girl,
troops have organized in public
housing in St. Johns W oods in
north P ortland and R ockw ood and
Fairview com plexes.
H urst has also led girls in a c tiv i
tie s to le a rn a b o u t e tiq u e tte ,
b abysitting training and hair carp.
B ecause m any o f the girls are A f
rican A m erican, H urst, also A fri
can A m erican, said the girls c o n
nect w ell w ith her.
G irls S couts is cu rren tly in need
o f volunteers, especially w om en
- Samantha Keeley, the Girl
Scouts HUD initiative manager
break dow n those cultural barriers,”
Girl Scouts M arketing D irector S h
annon E vers said.
Sam antha K eeley, the G irl Scouts
H UD in itiativ e m anager, said like
the scouts them selves, v olunteers
are not w ho one m ight expect: su b
urban h ousew ives w ith m inivans.
M any are co lle g e stu d en ts w ho
expose girls to o p p o rtu n ities and
goals they m ay have seen as out o f
reach.
“The troops I’m trying to form
need volunteers o f all different ages,
photo by
M ark W ashington /T he P ortland O bserver
Girl Scouts Marketing Specialist La Shanda Hurst and Whitney Lemes, 11, a Girl Scout cadet
from Gresham.
continued
on page A 6
Spelling Out
Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr.
Muslims Converge for Hajj
Chanting, “Oh Allah I’m here,”
hundreds o f thousands o f pil
grims draped in w hite garments
began to take part in rituals sym
bolizing the life o f their 7th cen
tury prophet and streaming into
the mammoth tent city o f Mina.
Third graders at Humboldt
Elementary and their teachers
Ms. Patrisha Porter (left) and
Ms. Renee Banks line up for
the spelling o f “Dr. Martin
Luther King” during a special
ceremony that recognized the
civil rights leader and cel
ebrated the addition o f a new
playgound at the north Port
land school.
U.N. Deploys
Peacekeepers in Sudan
The top United Nations envoy
to Sudan w as flying to the
country's southern rebel strong
hold to negotiate the deploy
ment o f a peacekeeping force to
back an accord that officially
ended 21 years o f civil war in the
region, U.N. officials said.
Aid Workers
Travel Ban Lifted
The United Nations lifted a travel
ban on aid workers in Indonesia’s
tsunam i-battered Aceh prov
ince, the scene o f a decades-
long conflict between rebels and
government forces that has raised
concerns about the safety o f re
lief efforts.
|
See story on page A5.
photo by
M ark W ashington /T he P ortland O bserver
Bearing Witness to the Sudan Devastation
tended schools. T oday, he says,
th e sam e fa m ilie s h av e been
driven from th eir hom es by g o v
ernm ent m ilitias, forced to live in
huts o r grass along riv er banks,
starving and picking w orm s from
by J aymee R. C m
th eir w ater w ith no sanitation or
T he P orti and O bserver
m edical system to speak of.
A Sudanese refugee living in
“You can see people that have
northeast Portland has returned been scattered around; not in their
from his exploratory mission to permanent places they used to be."
Sudan only to confirm his worst Bilkuei said. “Some people have
suspicions.
been driven away by the govern
‘T h e war has devastated every ment so they move to the forest by
thing," said Mayak Bilkuei, a refu the riverbank. They are living in the
gee from Ruweng County in south grass, suffering from m osquito
ern Sudan who has lived in Port bites, with no nets, no blankets, no
land for the last nine years.
cooking supplies.”
Bilkuei w alked 20 to 40 m iles
Bilkuei says he found his family
from tow n to tow n in scorching in sim ilar condition.
tem peratures exceeding 100 d e
“I saw my family. They were in
grees to w itness living conditions the same condition. I wish I could
o f p eo p le w ho o n ce lived in help them but I d idn’t have the
hom es, ow ned livestock and at- ability to help them out,” Bilkuei
Refugee returns
to raise aid,
awareness
Mayak Bilkuei
said.
A c c o rd in g to B ilk u e i, th e
Sudanese government would not
allow him to bring his family to the
United States.
B ilkuei's purpose in Sudan was
J'
to collect data and interview s to
bring to local aid org an izatio n s,
in hopes o f bringing assistance
to regions destroyed by decades
o f civil war. He is currently m e et
ing w ith M ercy C o rp s o f P o rt
land.
“We need them to go there on
the ground and do their own as
sessment. I have seen it but they
need to see it them selves so they
can bring some kind o f assistance
to the people," he said.
T o date, no aid has reached
Ruweng County.
Bilkuei saw a historic peace
agreem ent signed on television
while he was in Sudan between the
Sudanese governm ent, w hich is
Arab and Muslim and the Sudan
P eo p le L ib e ra tio n M o v em en t,
which is African and Christian.
He says people hiding in the
forest arc hesitant to return home.
in disbelief that peace has reached
their towns.
“I’ve seen some people come
back and others not because they
still don’t believe that peace as
com e," said Bilkuei.
With his data, he also plans to
confront the Canadian Talisman
Corp., which drills oil from Sudan
That oil is then sold on the open
market to Russia. China and M alay
sia. Some have raised suspicion
that oil-rich land in Ruweng County
is the unspoken reason fot the dev
astating invasion by the govern
ment.
Bilkuei has no plans to return to
Sudan, but he hopes humanitarian
relief agencies will follow his lead
and see the suffering for them
selves.
For m ore inform ation about
B ilk u e i's
e f f o rt.
v isit
www.ruw engpeople.org.